


The Hotbox

by FinalFallenFantasy



Series: 2021 Kodd Revival [1]
Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: 2021 Kodd Revival Event, College AU, Event Fic, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I got bare insomnia m8, KISS EVERYONE, Kodd, Kodd Revival, M/M, Never Have I Ever, OT3, Party, Prompt Fic, Spin the Bottle, Todd and Lance have great taste in music, Todd's got bare arms, adult!Kurt, adult!Todd, all I know is make weird boys kiss and write many word, otp, sort of? They're college kids, the right to bare arms, they're gonna show these preppy college kids a thing or two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 01:35:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinalFallenFantasy/pseuds/FinalFallenFantasy
Summary: Fic entry for the 2021 Kodd Revival Event! Based off Aisleen's prompt: 'The brotherhood crashes a party Kurt happens to be at while Kurt’s away at college, and he’s blindsided by how Todd grew into himself'
Relationships: Tabitha Smith/Kurt Wagner, Tabitha Smith/Toad, Toad/Kurt Wagner
Series: 2021 Kodd Revival [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2217633
Comments: 12
Kudos: 15





	The Hotbox

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks Aisleen for the prompt!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> I APOLOGISE TO ANY AND ALL DEADHEADS, THE OPINIONS STATED ARE ONLY PARTIALLY MY OWN (I love you all, Deadheads, and I love your culture, but I do NOT get the music)

Kurt glanced around at Shauna’s living room. It was unrecognisable. She’d covered the whole thing with her weird black bedsheets, hiding every inch of the furniture that had been piled into one corner, swathing the normally-cream walls in darkness. She’d changed all the bulbs for blacklights and put down some kind of tarp on the floor. Guess she really was going all out on this UV theme.

He stood awkwardly with a beer in his hand, watching the gathering of students bopping to a jaunty, familiar song. He took a drink. Shauna was a mutant, one of the few at their college, and she’d bonded like glue to him and Kitty from the first day. She’d walked right up to them as soon as she saw them, grinning wide with her cheek piercings dimpling in her soft face under a cloud of purple hair, and had stuck her hand out like an old-fashioned businessman.

‘I’m Shauna. You’re blue, and you’re cute, and you look like my kind of people.’ It had been blunt but effective, and the three of them had been firm friends ever since. That was the only reason Kurt had let Kitty drag him over for Shauna’s party. He was supposed to be Skyping his parents, but his eggshell-thin resistance had shattered when Kitty gave him her best puppy eyes and quivering pout. He was a sucker for the puppy eyes.

‘Having fun?’ Shauna asked, jiggling over to him in her brightly paint-spattered dress.

‘Oh, ja,’ Kurt replied vaguely. He scanned the crowd. It would be nice to find someone to make out with tonight. Nice to feel someone’s tongue in his mouth, to feel wanted for a few hours.

‘Doesn’t look like it,’ she said. ‘You ain’t got anywhere near enough paint on. C’mon.’ She took his hand and led him through into the kitchen, where Kitty was daubing bright shades of UV paint onto people’s faces. She always loved playing makeover.

‘It’ll get gummed in my fur,’ he protested.

‘We’ve got a shower,’ Shauna said, pushing him into the seat in front of Kitty. ‘And that weird shampoo of yours you left here last time.’

Kurt closed his eyes without further protest and let Kitty colour his eyebrows in with bright green paint. She dipped her finger into the pot and drew what felt like a circle on his forehead, and a few lines on each cheekbone. The short fur matted uncomfortably, but Kurt didn’t complain. Shauna was right – he could just wash it off if he wanted to.

‘Anyone else coming?’ he asked, trying to keep his face still.

‘Hmm, maybe,’ Shauna replied. ‘I heard someone’s cousin from your hometown might be bringing some buddies from out of town.’

‘Bayville?’ His eyes flew open briefly, but at a hiss from Kitty he shut them again. ‘Sorry!’

‘Yeah, Steve asked me if he could invite them, said he hasn’t seen the guy in years.’

‘Huh. Wonder if we know them,’ Kitty said. ‘Imagine if it was Duncan!’

Kurt pulled a face as her hand came away from his cheek. ‘Ugh. Anyone but him.’

The front door slammed, just audible over the music.

‘Guess that answers that,’ Shauna said. ‘I’m gonna go dance, feel free to grab another beer if y’all want.’ She headed back into the main room with the previous recipient of Kitty’s attentions. That could have been Steve, actually. Kurt wasn’t sure. He didn’t know all of Shauna’s friends.

He let Kitty dab some more paint on his eyelids before calling time. ‘Enough,’ he said, waving his hands in defeat. ‘I vill not be able to see if you put any more on!’

‘Yeah, you’re about done anyway,’ Kitty agreed, turning and dabbing some pink dots under her eyes and a pair of bright green slashes under her cheekbones. ‘Come on, let’s go say hi to _Duncan._ ’ She wiggled her fingers at him, and he laughed, grabbing at them. He was so glad they’d come to college together. He wouldn’t have had the courage to do it without his inducer if she hadn’t been there. It was so different, walking through corridors full of students and not fearing the accidental brush of skin, the awkward shadow of a tail on sunny days. Just being himself.

He followed Kitty through to the living room, and the music changed so abruptly he had aural whiplash, dropping from fizzy pop to a nasty bassline that rolled through his whole body. He grinned. This was _good_. He bounced on the balls of his feet, starting to finally get into the party vibe.

He scanned the crowded room, full of dark figures coated in streaks of vibrant colour glowing under the blacklights. He still hadn’t given up on the idea of finding someone to make out with. Kissing was one of life’s greatest pleasures in his opinion, and he had resolved to do it at every opportunity. There were few people, however, who wanted to kiss him, and fewer still he wanted to kiss back, even if he did have quite broad tastes. Surely, though, in this room full of people, there must be at least _someone_ who’d like to get pinned up against a wall and play tonsil hockey for a while. Or pin him against a wall. He wasn’t fussy, really.

Meanwhile, however, he danced, and drank beer. Kitty flitted away into the crowd, returning periodically as she always did, ever the social butterfly. About ten minutes in, Kurt caught sight of someone who looked… really interesting. A slim, strong body, probably a guy, dancing right up in front of a speaker with a beer in his hand, all gyrating hips and sharp elbows and strong shoulders with long brown hair that flicked up into the air as he danced. Kurt drifted closer. The guy was in a dark t-shirt with the sleeves torn off, revealing well-defined arms that made Kurt’s mouth suddenly go dry. His skin was covered in strange markings, a dark dappling that could have been tattoos or a strange reverse-vitiligo. A mutant, then? Kurt danced a little closer again.

Suddenly Kitty was by his side, her eyes wide and shocked. She tugged his sleeve and he bent with a hand cupped around his ear. She pressed her mouth to it and whispered into the hollow of his hand. It was the only way they’d found to communicate over loud music without blowing each other’s eardrums out.

‘Kurt, Lance is here.’

His eyes widened. ‘Lance?’ he mouthed, turning to face her properly.

She nodded and stood up on tiptoes to whisper through the tunnel of his hand again. ‘And Pietro, and Blob – Toad too, probably?’

That was too much. Kurt turned and hauled Kitty away from the music, out into the kitchen again. It looked like the world was taking him up on his ‘anyone but Duncan’ foolishness. ‘Vhat? Vhat are _zey_ doing here?’

‘I don’t know, I think Lance is the cousin? Steve’s cousin?’

‘Oh wow…’ Kurt sagged back against the counter. ‘Is zere- is zis going to be a problem?’

Kitty shrugged, worrying at her lip. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think so?’ But it sounded more hopeful than confident.

‘Ugh.’ Kurt ran a hand across his face, forgetting the drying paint matting his fur. ‘Vell as long as zey don’t start anything, right?’

‘As long as who don’t start anything?’ Kurt would know that voice, that too-fast, irritating whine, anywhere.

‘Hello, Pietro.’

‘Hi there Blue Boy. Oh, that top does _nothing_ for you; you should have stuck with the wedding dress.’

‘Yes, thank you. Vhy didn’t I think of that?’ Kurt rolled his eyes.

‘Because you don’t have my sartorial genius. Where’s the beer around here?’

Kitty reached into the cooler full of icy water and pulled out a bottle, wordlessly passing it across.

‘Thank you.’ And that was startling, wasn’t it, hearing something _polite_ come out of the speedster’s pointy little mouth. ‘Ooh you have paint.’ He whizzed over to the little makeup station and started dabbing UV paint across his thin face.

Kurt and Kitty exchanged a glance.

‘Yo, you got a beer?’ Another familiar voice. Kurt’s fur rippled as his hackles rose. He turned back to the doorway and saw- oh. Oh.

It was… It was Todd. Yes. That much was clear now, that much was obvious. The slight hunch to the shoulders, the too-long legs, the wide jaw and broad cheekbones. The obscene mouth. That _accent_. But it was also the guy who’d just been dancing in front of the speakers. The _really hot_ one. Holy shit. Kurt’s throat tightened and he couldn’t even begin to speak.

Todd had… Todd had grown up _hot_. He was taller, probably only an inch or two shorter than Kurt himself, and he’d grown his hair out. It had lost its greasy look and now hung loose and almost soft-looking down over his shoulders, even longer than Kurt's was now. His skin had darkened, deepening from that unhealthy, sallow grey it had held as a teen to a gentle green that should have looked just as unhealthy but really, really didn’t. Under his cheekbones held the same subtle dappling patterns as his wiry arms, though finer and more delicate, like the strangest contouring Kurt had ever seen.

Long legs that had once been skinny and ridiculous had now filled out and become obviously steel-strong from the way his jeans stretched tight around hard thighs. Kurt swallowed hard. He was _not_ going to think about what those legs could do, whether they could hold up the weight of two. He was definitely not going to think anything of the sort.

Perhaps the most startling change was in the amphibious mutant’s eyes. They had darkened, with black sclera and amber irises, so wildly different from the pale, washed-out yellow of his teen years. They were captivating.

Kitty gave him a strange look as she passed Todd a beer, which he cracked open with his lighter before crossing and opening Pietro’s for him while the speedster finished his paint. The webbing between Todd’s fingers had crept up to halfway between the first and second knuckle, Kurt noticed absently. His fingers had grown too, along with the rest of him. His hands- Kurt stopped that thought right there.

Those dark eyes fixed on him and Todd lifted his beer to take a long swallow. Kurt caught his own eyes tracking the bob of the other man’s Adam’s apple, caught his thoughts straying toward the possible combinations of sharp teeth and tender skin.

‘Hey Fuzzface.’

‘… Hi.’ Kurt kicked himself for his hesitation. ‘Hi. Vhat… So Lance is Steve’s cousin?’ Oh, yeah. Great question, that was. Fucking aces.

Pietro nodded before Todd could reply. ‘Yup. Said we were gonna come out and crash a party out of town, should have guessed you geeks would be here. Fred’s here too, and Tabby of course, she can’t resist a party-’

‘Tabby?’ Kurt and Kitty chorused in unison.

‘You called?’ And there she was, draping herself in the doorway like she owned the place, like she always did. Kitty leapt forward with a delighted squeal and barrelled into her. Tabby wrapped both arms tightly around the shorter woman and held her tightly for a moment.

‘It’s so good to see you!’ Kitty laughed.

‘You too buddy. It’s so good to see _both_ of you!’

Kurt followed Kitty forward and wrapped his arms around both of them. ‘Okay,’ he said, turning his head to glance at Todd – who was _older_ now and _hotter_ and that was _way_ too confusing right now to think about – and flashing him a brief smile. ‘If you brought Tabby to us zat makes you all velcome.’

Todd shrugged and an amused smirk fled across his lips.

It looked like they had a peace treaty.

-

The next hour was a blur of awkward reunions. Kitty and Lance went outside to have a chat with serious expressions on their faces and came back in laughing together. Fred obviously wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself when he saw the ‘X-Geeks’ again and eventually settled on sticking his hand out and giving them polite handshakes. It was kind of sweet, really. Pietro more or less ignored all awkwardness and just chattered nine to the dozen at anyone who would listen, as always. It was exhausting.

Kurt finally escaped Pietro’s account of the current state of Bayville (‘boring, so _boring_ , everything’s so _slow_ ’) to go and dance again. He found Todd in front of the speaker once more, lost in the music. He paused with his beer in his hand just to watch for a moment, entranced by the way Todd’s body moved smoothly from one shape to another like he was more liquid than solid. It was fascinating. He’d never had much grace as a teenager – Kurt had been able to run rings around him with his training and acrobatic experience – but now there was something loose, fluid about his movements, like he’d learned the edges of his body and had finally relaxed into them.

After a while, he realised he was being a creeper and looked away to focus on his own dancing, swaying and hopping and weaving to the music. He got lost in it for a while. Until he noticed Todd had gone from the speaker and was now leaning back against the wall, watching the room with those black eyes.

Kurt hesitated. Then, shaking himself, he went over to him. It was only friendly, right? They were at peace.

He leaned on the wall beside Todd and joined in watching the other students dance. Todd’s right arm had a swipe of pink paint down it, like someone had brushed against him with it. There was a smear of green on his cheekbone, glowing over the darkened mottling.

‘Did you change the music vhen you got here?’ Kurt asked, leaning down and cupping Todd’s ear.

The shorter boy jumped and stared at him for a moment. Then he copied Kurt, cupping a cool hand against his ear and tilting his head up to murmur into it. ‘Yeah, Lance’n’me hijacked the aux. They were playing some real shit before.’

Kurt nodded and grinned, all sharp white teeth under the UV light. He agreed. ‘Zis is much better,’ he said quietly into the other boy’s ear, daring to lean down a little further and speak directly into it, shielding it with his hand. He didn’t miss the slight shiver that ran through Todd’s wiry frame as his lips brushed its cool shell.

But then the beat changed and Todd was peeling himself off the wall and making his way back across to the speaker, and Kurt was left standing there for a brief moment, watching that lithe body slide back into motion again. Oh, this was a lot of complicated Feelings all at once.

Rather than think about it, he went to dance again too. He could worry about liking the shape of Todd’s ass in those jeans later. Right now he was on his way to getting drunk, and he was at a party, and there was someone really fucking attractive dancing where he could see. That was enough for now, right?

-

It wasn’t enough. But just as Kurt was coming to that conclusion, and wondering if it really mattered so much that Todd was Todd, was the Toad, was his ridiculous, obnoxious _enemy_ , he heard a familiar voice.

‘Roll up, roll up!’ Kitty called into the living room, trying to be heard above the music. ‘We’re gonna play Never Have I Ever in the hotbox!’

In theory it was a conservatory, but from the very first day of Shauna’s tenancy it had of course been designated the hotbox. If it wasn’t sweltering in the sun, it was freezing at night, and at any time of the day it was liable to have the doors firmly pulled shut and its small airspace filled with the spicy emissions from the three-foot bong in the corner.

Kurt hadn’t planned on being dragged away from the dancing so soon – he might have, just a little bit, not much at all, just _slightly_ been considering unobtrusively shuffling his way over to where Todd was dancing and maybe, just maybe seeing how that might go – but Kitty grabbed his arm and in no uncertain terms, demanded that he follow her. There weren’t many words involved, just a sort of determined dragging. Oh well. Looked like his looming mistake was being cancelled before he made it. It probably shouldn’t have been as disappointing as it was.

He didn’t have long to feel disappointed, however, as almost immediately after, Pietro went and grabbed Todd in much the same way. Kurt couldn’t hear it above the music, but he _saw_ Todd’s startled yelp as he was forced out of his groove and into the next room.

Tabby was already in there, lounging against the wall and chatting with Lance, who was sitting in a lone chair propped in the corner. Fred had taken up one of the two small loveseats with his generous bulk and was carefully laying out shotglasses on the table, supervised by Shauna, her purple hair flopping into her eyes as she leaned over the glass surface.

‘You ready for this?’ she asked with a grin, cheeks dimpling deeply around the piercings.

‘Are ve just taking shots until we drop or…?’

‘Ten fingers _and_ shots!’ Kitty crowed, hefting a handle of rum and carefully pouring out the shots.

‘This game is _unfair_ ,’ Kurt whined, flattening his ears back melodramatically. ‘I only have six fingers!’

‘Use your toes then.'

That's not fair, he starts with twelve then,' Fred objected.

'Right, you get one foot. That’s nine. You can pretend you have an invisible one on your forehead or something.’ Kitty shrugged. She was heartless. Heartless!

‘Fingers, toes and dick,’ Todd suggested with a lascivious grin, slipping around Kitty to crouch on the floor in front of Fred. Kurt scowled.

‘Oh very nice, und vhat am I supposed to do, get a boner and zen think about icebergs vhen I need to put it down?’

Todd shrugged. ‘That’s your problem dude.’ He put on a hideously fake accent. ‘Ain’t none of my business, I’m just makin’ suggestions.’

‘Oh my _God_ ,’ Kurt groaned, covering his face. ‘You’re a _Deadhead_?’

‘Ain’t we all, yo?’

‘ _No!_ ’ Kurt said emphatically. ‘Some of us are _sane_.’

‘Or German,’ Tabby added, slapping him on the back hard enough to make him choke on her way to the other loveseat. ‘You just won’t get it til you’re a red-blooded American, Blue.’

‘Vell thank God for that,’ he said sourly. He didn’t _want_ to get the Grateful Dead. It was all twangy, jangly banjos and weird warpy noises. Not like real music at all.

‘ _Anyway_ ,’ Kitty said loudly, tapping her beer bottle on the glass coffee table. ‘The game’s starting so sit down if you’re playing.’

Kurt went to sit on the floor beside her, in front of the greying sofa on the other side of the table from Todd. Tabby’s feet came to rest on the back of his shoulders. It _was_ nice to see her again, even if she did tease him mercilessly. She had never shied away from him, and that wasn’t something a guy who’d spent his life devastatingly touch-starved ever forgot. So he let her press her feet into his shoulder blades, leaning back on them comfortably.

‘Never have I ever,’ Pietro said, jumping in before anyone else could say a word, ‘celebrated Christmas.’

Almost the entire room groaned, save for Kitty, who just grinned and tipped her bottle at the speedster.

Todd rolled his eyes. ‘It was _one time_.’

‘And God hates you for it,’ Pietro said calmly.

‘That’s-’ Todd spluttered, taking his shot. ‘That ain’t how _any_ of this works, dawg.’ Then, after a moment’s consideration, ‘Ay, fuck God, yo, I don’t even like him.’

Kurt couldn’t help but laugh, even though a prickle of old-fashioned religious guilt curled down the back of his collar like an unwelcome hand. He caught Todd’s eye and raised an eyebrow, miming a flopping motion with his hand in front of his crotch.

‘Vell that’s my dick out,’ he said. The amphibious mutant snorted and rolled his eyes, but there was an amused quirk to his lips.

Kurt took his shot and they all waited as Kitty refilled them from the handle.

‘Never have I ever chased someone around the house for an _hour_ with mistletoe,’ she announced when she was done, leaning back on her heels. Kurt’s jaw dropped.

‘Kitt- _yyy_ ,’ he whined. ‘Zat’s so unfair!’ But he lifted his feet in the air and curled one toe anyway, taking the shot. He was amused to note that Todd did the same, dropping a second webbed finger. ‘How many times are you going to drag me for that? I’ve said I vas sorry a hundred times!’

‘Hmm.’ Her eyes sparkled with mischief. ‘Maybe another hundred’ll do it.’

He stuck his tongue out at her, heedless of how childish it was. She did it right back and slapped Fred on the back. ‘Your turn, big boy!’

Fred didn’t even hesitate. ‘Never have I ever wanted to… _boink_ an X-Geek.’

Pandemonium broke out.

‘Yes you fucking have!’ Lance exclaimed, as Pietro whizzed around behind Blob and swatted him.

‘What do you mean you’ve never wanted to boink an X-Geek, what about Jean Gray, huh? What about her, you liked her for months!’

‘Nuh uh.’ Fred shook his head firmly. ‘I didn’t wanna _boink_ her, I wanted her to be my friend.’

To Kurt’s surprise, Todd spoke up.

‘He’s tellin’ the truth, dawg. He didn’t wanna bang Red.’

‘Yeah, but-’ Lance started.

‘You’re just butthurt cos he got all of us in one go,’ Todd retorted, grinning obscenely.

 _All of them?_ Kurt tried to be surreptitious when he glanced at Todd’s webbed hands, noticing that one more finger had indeed gone down, but those newly darkened eyes caught him, he was sure of it. Was it his imagination or did the corner of that wide mouth lift slightly in a subtle smirk?

He looked away, cheeks burning under blue fur.

‘Never have I ever gotten so drunk I locked myself out of my house and forgot I could “powers” my way in,’ Shauna said with a teasing glint in her eye.

Both Kurt and Kitty yelped. This game was _not_ fair when everyone knew you well enough to pick out all of your embarrassing moments.

‘Ok, well never have I ever gotten so high I forgot that a door was a pull door in my own house,’ Kitty retorted.

‘It isn’t your go, sweet cheeks,’ Shauna said, grinning. She tipped her head back and took a long sip from her beer anyway.

Kitty pouted. Kurt stuck his tongue out at her, still sore about the mistletoe.

‘Okay,’ Tabby said with a broad, lazy grin. ‘Never have I ever had sex with Lance Alvers.’

Squawks erupted from both ends of the room and Pietro and Kitty gave each other wide-eyed, shocked looks as Lance quietly choked on his beer in the corner.

‘Oh that was _cruel_ , Tabs,’ Todd said with a wicked smirk, shaking his head. ‘Yer a stone cold ice queen, lady.’

Tabby spread her arms wide and laughed. ‘Ice _bitch_ , please.’

Their eyes caught and Kurt shivered from the shared mischief that flowed like electricity between them. He felt abruptly sorry for the other members of the Brotherhood. Living with the pair of them must have been a _nightmare_. Then again, living with any of the Brotherhood seemed like a nightmare to Kurt.

‘You fucked _Pietro_?’ Kitty demanded, flabbergasted.

Lance shrugged. ‘We uh, we kind of dated?’

‘ _Dated?_ ’ Pietro said, disgust writ large across his sharp features. ‘We did _not_.’

‘Then what was it?’ Lance all but exploded, throwing his hands in the air and clearly forgetting he had an open beer in one of them. A short, sharp shower of it rained down into his hair. ‘Cos I don’t know what else to call it, man!’

Pietro shrugged and looked away sulkily, crossing his arms across his thin chest. ‘I don’t know, Lance, fucking?’ This was clearly an old argument.

‘Fine, okay!’ Lance said loudly. ‘Yes Kitty, I was _fucking_ Pietro for a while. Like a damn year, and even though we shared a goddamn bed and spent _Valentine’s Day_ together he still doesn’t think it counts.’

Kitty’s expression held more words than a voice could have, a strange portmanteau between shock and secondhand embarrassment. ‘Sounds like a lot of you guys’ problem,’ she eventually replied before taking a deep gulp of her beer. ‘ _What the fuck?_ ’ she mouthed to Kurt.

Kurt shrugged helplessly. It wasn’t like he had any more insight than she did.

‘Okay, never have I ever dated a guy, then,’ Lance said, rolling his eyes.

A groan ran around the whole room except for Tabby, who just grinned. ‘Me neither, baby.’

‘You have, you dated that guy in New York,’ Pietro objected.

Tabby shook her head. ‘Non-binary, baby. Not a single dude on my lover list. I have thus far only _fucked_ guys.’ Her toe prodded Kurt squarely between the shoulder blades. ‘Might consider changing that for Blue here, though.’

Kurt choked on his shot and Kitty had to pound him on the back a few times before he regained the power of speech.

‘Uh, no thanks Tabby. You’re too exciting for me,’ he said, laughing.

‘I’m just too hot for you to handle.’

‘Yes.’ Kurt nodded solemnly. ‘Yes, you are too hot for me to handle, and also you put explosives in my underpants vhen I vas sixteen.’

She threw her head back with a roar of laughter. ‘Oh, that was priceless. Your _face_!’

‘It vasn’t my face I vas vorried about,’ he muttered, turning back around to face the table again. As he did so, he caught sight of the fact that another of Todd’s fingers had gone down. He swallowed and tried not to look at the guy. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that Todd was watching _him_.

‘My turn, yo,’ the other boy said, and Kurt automatically looked at him. To his shock, Todd was watching him intently as he said, ‘Never have I ever grabbed an enemy’s ass in the middle of a fight.’

‘I did _not_!’ Kurt yelped, rocking forward with wide, wild eyes. ‘I _did not_ grab your ass.’

‘Then how come you’re the only one reactin’?’ Todd asked with a broad smirk.

Kurt’s mouth flapped for a moment, wordless and startled. ‘I-’ he started. ‘Because you vere _looking_ at me.’

‘Nah dawg, you grabbed my ass, don’t lie.’

‘ _When_?’ Kitty demanded, eyes fixed on the green mutant, sparkling with mirth.

‘First time we met, yo,’ Todd replied without looking away from Kurt. His black eyes were hypnotising.

‘You don’t even _remember_ that!’ Kurt squawked. ‘Xavier made you forget it.’

‘Ohhh I see,’ Todd said.

‘No, not-’ Kurt started. ‘No, I don’t, I mean…’ He stared helplessly at the other mutant. ‘I did _not_ grab your ass!’ he insisted.

‘Yeah, yeah, Blue Boy,’ Pietro said, flapping a hand disinterestedly. ‘You’re not convincing anyone.’

‘I did _not_ , I accidentally ported us into the Danger Room, and I kind of accidentally landed on him and vhen I vent to get up, I put my hand on his ass… by accident.’

‘Huh,’ Shauna said with a laughing, sidelong glance. ‘That sounds like an awful lot of accidents in a row.’

‘Just take the shot, dude, you aren’t getting out of this,’ Lance said with a grin, downing his own shot. It didn’t take a genius to guess just _whose_ ass he’d grabbed during a fight - Kitty was taking a shot right alongside him.

‘Fine,’ Kurt said sulkily, grabbing a shotglass between a thick finger and thumb. ‘But I don’t think it’s accurate.’

‘My _ass_ does.’

‘Vill you shut up?’

‘Ooh, burn,’ Todd said with a straight face before bursting into a cackle, tipping his head back and exposing the pale column of his throat. Dappled markings traced the sides of it and disappeared under the collar of his sweater, and Kurt couldn’t fend off the runaway desire to see how far they went. Okay. Okay, fuck it. He was drunk, and they were all being friendly, and now was as good a time as any to make a big mistake.

‘Okay,’ he said slowly, setting down his glass with a click and levelling Todd with an intent gaze. ‘Never have I ever _vanted_ to grab an enemy’s ass.’ And then, slowly and very deliberately, he put one of his own fingers down.

Todd’s black and amber eyes widened momentarily and his face darkened in a subtle flush before his lips stretched in a smirk. He put down one more finger, keeping his eyes locked firmly on Kurt’s.

Kurt felt hot all over from the intensity of that gaze, felt a shiver of desire ripple under his fur like fire. He licked his lips, running the tip of his tongue from one pointed canine to another. Todd’s pupils dilated.

The world had narrowed down to just the two of them, and the space between. The air felt like it was crackling with static energy, waiting for contact. Kurt’s heart beat faster.

‘Guys, like, get a room,’ Kitty complained, rolling her eyes and snapping the tension as neatly as if she’d cut a string.

‘Ooh!’ Tabby leaned forward over Kurt’s shoulder. ‘We should play spin the bottle!’

‘You just want to make boys kiss,’ Fred complained.

‘Well duh, I wanna make _everyone_ kiss,’ Tabby said enthusiastically. ‘This is how the orgy starts, guys.’

‘Ew, no,’ Kitty said, pulling a face. ‘I am _not_ having sex with _any_ of you guys.’

‘I’m crushed,’ Shauna said with a broad wink. ‘Come on, it’ll be fun. Spin the bottle, I mean. Not an orgy.’

‘That would be fun too, yo,’ Todd said, grinning. Fred smacked him lightly on the back of the head.

‘Just cos you can’t get laid any other time.’

‘Ay, says you,’ Todd retorted, rubbing the back of his head.

Tabby leaped up and ran to the door to the main room, where half the other students were still dancing. It looked like a lot of people had either passed out upstairs or gone out for a smoke. ‘Hey!’ she called sharply. ‘Spin the bottle in the hotbox, now!’

Another four people filtered in – two girls with blue undercuts, the guy Kitty had been painting – Steve? Lance’s cousin? – and a person Kurt vaguely remembered was called Leaf. Their skin was even greener than Todd’s, but they didn’t have the dappled markings that fascinated him so much.

Spin the Bottle was unmitigated chaos. Fred, surprisingly, leapt in first and spun the bottle onto one of the undercut girls. He dared her to kiss Leaf. The other girl awkwardly looked anywhere but them, visibly trying not to care. The next pair to get caught were Shauna and Lance, and then it was Pietro’s turn to pretend he didn’t care, staring almost _loudly_ at the ceiling. Shauna spun next and immediately dared Kitty to kiss Kurt, because she could never resist a chance to squick them out. But it wasn’t the first time it had happened. They both shrugged and shared a chaste peck. What was a kiss between friends?

Kitty spun it and dared Leaf to kiss the other undercut girl. It went on for a while. Leaf turned away from the girl with cheeks flushed a dark brown. ‘Uhh.’ They spun the bottle and it landed on Todd. ‘Uh, Todd, right?’ They glanced around the room. ‘I guess… kiss… Boom Boom? Tabby?’ They shrugged.

‘C’mere babycakes,’ Tabby said with a grin, spreading her arms wide. Todd rolled his eyes and came up onto his knees, shuffling past Kurt. The blue elf couldn’t resist turning around, and was presented with a kiss that could definitely _not_ be described as chaste. Tabby’s arms were wound tightly around the amphibious mutant’s neck while his own wiry limbs boxed her into the loveseat. They kissed for almost a full twenty seconds, and Kurt could _hear_ the sticky, wet sounds of it right by his ear, the heavy, warm, shared breath.

Oh.

It was… maybe disappointing. But also kind of painfully hot. He watched with fascination as Todd’s wide mouth eased over Tabby’s, looking surprisingly gentle and smooth. Teeth caught at his lips and they broadened in a smirk as he returned the motion.

Kurt’s blood went both north to his cheeks and straight south. Okay, it was _really_ hot. Even if he wasn’t the one kissing Todd, he could appreciate it.

When they finally parted Tabby grinned and leaned back to flick Todd’s nose with one chipped, purple fingernail.

‘That was nice. We haven’t kissed in _years_.’

‘Yeah, been a while,’ Todd replied with a smirk. Then he retreated from the couch and returned to his seat on the floor, lips slightly reddened from her lipstick. Kurt was startled by how badly he wanted to lick it off.

Webbed fingers spun the bottle. It wobbled and grated on the glass of the coffee table until it landed directly on Kurt. Huh. He flicked his gaze up to Todd’s and saw the heat in it. Maybe Todd kissing Tabby like that didn’t mean he didn’t also want to kiss Kurt.

‘Hmm…’ Todd pretended to think about it. ‘I’m gonna go with Tabby again. She started it so she obviously wants to kiss as many of us as possible.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ Tabby snorted. ‘But I will never say no to a kiss from my favourite Little Boy Blue.’

Kurt rolled his eyes. ‘Could you pick a name zat vas any _less_ sexy?’

‘Hah. Shut up and kiss me.’

He turned around and did as asked, sliding his arms around her shoulders and pulling her up against him to gently press their lips together. He wasn’t going to imitate Todd – he was a perfectly good kisser in his own right. Eyes drifting closed, he slowly moved his lips against hers, sliding his tongue against hers and tasting the hot burn of the rum soaking it, savouring the warmth of her breath in his mouth. It was nice – kind of hot, really – but it didn’t light him up, didn’t send sparks of electricity snapping down his spine. Didn’t make his tail curl tightly in the air. There were very few girls that did that for him. But it _was_ still kind of hot. Maybe, with time, with a few more kisses, it could have generated that electric pulse. Maybe, slowly, it sort of already was.

When they parted, Tabby smiled fondly and reached up a hand to ruffle his hair before pulling him into a hug.

‘That was _also_ nice,’ she said with a grin. ‘You aren’t bad at that.’

‘Oh, gee, thanks.’ Kurt pulled a face and disentangled himself from her embrace.

She laughed. ‘Anytime, Blue.’

Kurt grasped the bottle firmly and spun it. It landed on Fred, so he dared him to kiss Kitty. In the end, Kitty kissed him, because manoeuvring Fred’s giant knees around the delicate glass coffee table proved a bit of a logistical nightmare. She scrambled into his lap with a playful grin and kissed him soundly before returning to her place beside Kurt.

Fred spun the bottle and it landed on Todd again. They looked at each other and Todd shook his head very slightly with a wide-eyed, melodramatic pleading expression. Fred just grinned.

‘Oh, fine.’ Todd threw his hands in the air and shuffled across to sit directly in front of Kurt, inserting himself between the elf’s spread knees.

‘He didn’t say anyone?’ Kurt said tentatively.

Todd rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah but he was thinkin’ it.’

‘Are you a telepath now?’ Kurt asked, grinning sharply and leaning in so his breath ghosted across the other boy’s lips.

‘Y’all have been making calf eyes at each other for the whole night,’ Fred said bluntly. ‘I’m just helpin’ you out.’

‘Thanks, Fred,’ Todd called sarcastically without looking away.

‘So then?’ Kurt said, leaning back on his hands, away from Todd. He looked up at him from under his eyelashes, a look that he _knew_ worked for him. ‘Kiss me.’

Oh, the look _that_ earned him should have been placed in an art exhibition. But he didn’t have long to savour it, because then Todd was pressing forward, moving his legs to straddle his hips almost absently as he bunched a hand in Kurt’s dark hair. And then there were broad, smooth lips on his and all Kurt’s mind could think of was that he _was_ going to get to lick Tabby’s lipstick off them.

And if he’d thought watching Todd kiss Tabby was hot, feeling that wide mouth on his, that green tongue sliding into his mouth and curling around his own, was enough to blow it out of the water. Arousal fled out through every fibre of his body from that kiss, a hot shiver rippling across his fur as he pressed up and into Todd’s body, bringing one hand up to tangle in that brown hair and stop the other boy from pulling away.

There was an enthusiastic wolf whistle – Tabby – and a fake retching noise – Pietro – surrounded by Kitty and Fred’s laughing cheers and whoops. Kurt’s lips tightened in a smile and he released his grip in Todd’s hair to raise two fingers at Kitty. Then he brought it back to cup the side of the other mutant’s face, relishing the coolness of a dappled cheek against his hot palm.

One of Todd’s hands ran down to his chest and rested there, above his pounding heart.

At last, they parted, and Kurt licked his lips, looking dazedly up into Todd’s face, lingering on that kiss-bruised mouth, on the blackness of his pupils in those strange, dark eyes.

‘Vanna do zat again?’ he asked with a cheeky grin. Todd laughed, baring that throat again, and Kurt couldn’t resist dipping his head in quickly and running the point of his tongue up its length.

‘Hey, hey, are y’all still playing or are you just gonna sit there making out?’ Shauna demanded.

Kurt pretended to think about it. ‘Make out, I think.’

‘Okay, that’s valid, but go and sit in the corner or something; you’re in the way.’

Todd scrambled up out of Kurt’s lap and stood, holding his hand out. ‘C’mon, let’s go outside, I wanna smoke.’

‘He wants to smoke his _dick_ ,’ Pietro muttered, just loudly enough to make Tabby burst into raucous peals of laughter.

Kurt stuck his tongue out at the speedster with a smirk before accepting Todd’s hand and following him out into the garden.

-

The rest of the night was a drunken blur, lurching from garden to bathroom to the main party room. Later, Kurt remembered it in patches, disjointed and confusing and vague. There had been dancing; he definitely remembered Todd pressed up against his body with an arm slung back around his neck, grinding back into his hips, deliberately pressing back into the hard line beneath Kurt’s jeans. There had been shared cigarettes and sloppy shotguns when the bong finally came out. They’d both spent at least half an hour making out with Tabby all together, taking it in turns to watch the other two or ganging up to scatter compliments on each other, sharing bumpy threeway kisses full of too many noses and chins and tongues. There was a high chance they'd made out with Steve (who had, in fact, been the guy Kitty had painted in the kitchen). They’d definitely kissed Leaf at some point too, but the strange, quiet mutant was mostly too busy with the undercut girls to pay them much attention. He remembered thinking that Todd was a really, really good kisser, but that could have been the booze. There had been a sudden tearing noise as the aux cable got yanked out around four thirty a.m. and everyone finally settled down to sleep.

They didn’t have sex, because it was Shauna’s house and they were curled up together on the loveseat with about seven other sleeping people in the room, but there had definitely been a long hour of teasing kisses, wet mouths on bare chests and hands sliding into each other’s pants, feeling the shape of each other, getting close, too close and having to stop for fear of making too much noise. There had been sleepy, awkward snuggles with too many elbows and knees until they found a position comfortable enough to sleep in, curled up like kittens. Kurt had definitely felt a kiss pressed to his forehead as he drifted off.

-

He awoke to a hand shaking him gently awake, a shaft of sunlight beaming down between the conservatory blinds and illuminating the floor right by the loveseat. Todd was crouched right in it, soaking it up into his green skin as his black eyes watched Kurt’s face. He started talking as soon as he saw Kurt was awake.

‘Okay dawg, I was gonna write my number on your arm so you’d have it when you woke up but turns out you can’t do that with fur so I just kinda, uh, stayed? I was gonna wake you up but you-’ Todd abruptly closed his mouth as though catching himself up, swallowing whatever was going to come next. ‘So yeah. You want my number or no?’

Kurt’s mouth stretched in a slow smile. ‘Ja. I vould like that.’

‘You got paper? Or a phone?’

Kurt handed Todd his battered smartphone and webbed thumbs tapped in a number faster than Kurt could follow. When he got it back, he checked and saw a new number saved under ‘Todd T’. He went to edit it and slowly – frustratingly slowly – changed it. Then he turned the phone around with a grin. ‘Zat’s better.’

It was worth it, worth the minor embarrassment, to see the way Todd flushed, dappled cheeks darkening under black eyes. Those wide lips curled in a surprised smile.

Kurt’s stomach flipped at the sight. Oh, this was going to be trouble. He grinned sharply. It was going to be the _fun_ kind of trouble.

‘Listen dawg, I really gotta shoot. Lance’ll drive off without me if I don’t catch them up. It was, uh, good seein’ you.’

‘It vas.’ Kurt pushed himself up on his elbow to run his eyes over Todd’s strange, expressive face. He tilted his chin up, a challenge in his golden gaze. ‘Are you going to kiss me goodbye?’

Todd looked startled for a moment before a smirk stretched that broad mouth even further. ‘Gladly, yo.’ He leaned in and pressed cool, pliant lips to Kurt’s, and okay, it definitely hadn’t been the booze. Todd was a _really good_ kisser. His wide lips moved slowly, firmly, easing over Kurt’s like he had all the time in the world despite his earlier statement. A green tongue slipped across the seam of Kurt’s mouth and slid inside, twining around his own and dragging a fluttering sigh out from his throat.

But then Todd was pulling away, pressing a last, chaste peck to Kurt’s mouth before standing and stretching wiry arms above his head. His spine cracked. A dark eye glanced down at Kurt, that smirk still curling the corner of his lips. Illuminated by the bright shaft of sunlight, he looked incredible.

When he’d left, quietly closing the door behind him, Kurt flopped back onto the sofa with a groan, casting a hand across his eyes to block out the light. This was _such_ bad news. But he still smiled. Bad news or not, it felt great.

Beside him, slowly heating up as the sun inched its way across, his phone screen shone dimly, still showing the newest number: ‘Todd <3’

**Author's Note:**

> So these were my notes whilst writing this:
> 
> Kurt’s there, dragged by Kitty. Is it their house. No it’s Kitty and Kurt’s bestie’s house?
> 
> Fun but no one hot, he wants to make out w/ someone
> 
> Brotherhood crash party
> 
> Never Have I Ever
> 
> Seven Minutes In Heaven? Maybe they aren’t playing it but Todd and Kurt do anyway lmao
> 
> Todd's got bare arms m8.
> 
> Kurt's got bare yearning, m8
> 
> Tabby is Just Excellent.
> 
> \---
> 
> So uhh that was my plot. This kinda became the beginnings of a possible OT3 story, and I kinda like that. I miss the days of making out with all the cute buddies. Roll on summer and (hopefully) the end of lockdown!
> 
> If you want to join the Kodd Discord server shoot me a message and I'll send you the link! I'd post it here but they apparently expire really regularly. So please do message, we'd love to have you!


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